instructions by his own exaggerated descriptions and promises.[1]
In 1610 the Council for Virginia became so much discouraged as to the prospects of the Colony, that they called Sir Thomas Gates before them, and abjured him to state with entire candor whether or not it would be wisest to abandon the action. The reply of Gates revealed that he had a just notion as to what constituted the true value of Virginia to the Company and England. “All men,” said he, “know that we stand at the devotion of politick princes and states, who for their proper utility, devise all courses to grind our merchants, and by all pretences, to confiscate their goods and draw from us all manner of gaine by their inquisitive inventions, when in Virginia, a few years’ labor by planting and husbandry, will furnish all our defects with honor and securitie.”[2] These were also the views of Smith as to the ultimate destiny of the Colony, but he lost no opportunity to assert that it should be placed on a footing of permanency before there was any attempt to make use of its natural products in supplying the wants of England. In his memorable letter addressed to the Treasurer and Council in England in 1608, he said with reference to the manufacture of pitch, tar, glass, soap ashes, and clapboard in Virginia at that time, that it was a waste of money, as the factors of the Company could buy in Northern Europe in a week as much of these commodities as would be required to load a ship. “It were better,” he declared, “to give five hundred pounds a tun for them in Denmarke than send for them hither, till more necessary things be provided, for in over toyling our weake and unskilful bodies to satisfie this desire of present profit, we can scarce ever recover ourselves from one Supply to another.”[3]
